Former Memphis Police Officer Sentenced in Cocaine and Assault Case

(Memphis) Seven years in prison was the sentence for former Memphis Police Officer Melvin Robinson.

Robinson admitted he possessed and planned to sell cocaine while on the job as a police officer.

“Certainly it’s hard to hear that you are going to prison. I think the sentence was tough but it was fair,” said Robinson’s attorney Marty McAfee.

McAfee asked the judge to go light, but was told the seriousness of this crime required a sentence that reflected respect for law enforcement.

Robinson admitted violating the public trust when he contacted a person, who actually was an informant, and arranged a cocaine pickup.

Robinson was arrested when he went to a truck stop, picked up what he thought was a duffel bag with the drugs and then put it in his police car.

The former officer also pled guilty to stealing money from a person he arrested and hitting another man who was sitting in his squad car.

The incident caused Police Director Toney Armstrong to come down strong on corrupt officers last year.

“We have caught and arrested a thug posing as a police officer. It angers me the hard-working men and women in blue have had their ranks tainted,” Armstrong said in the news conference shortly after Robinson’s arrest last year.

But Robinson’s wife and father made tearful pleas for the judge give to him a chance to return to his family.

Robinson himself wiped away tears and apologized saying it wasn’t his character.

“There are some bad apples and there are some people who make mistakes. The judges are trying to decide is it a bad person or is it someone who made a mistake and needs to be reprimanded. Here it was the later,” says McAfee.

There is still no word on when Melvin Robinson will start serving his sentence.